Santa Cruz County Governance

Environmental protection and restoration

Santa Cruz County is the smallest county in California, with a population of some 270,000 residents living in a county of 670 square miles, 162 square miles of which is water. It contains four incorporated cities, Santa Cruz, Capitola, Scotts Valley and Watsonsville, surrounded by the unincorporated Santa Cruz County.

Local government consists of the County Board of Supervisors, four City Councils and a myriad of commissions, committees and advisory body, plus unelected staff in the various county and municipal governments.

  • The County of Santa Cruz has 43 formal advisory bodies, listed and described HERE.
  • The City of Santa Cruz has 14 formal advisory bodies, listed and described HERE.
  • The City of Capitola has 7 formal advisory bodies, listed and described HERE.
  • The City of Scotts Valley has 15 formal advisory bodies, listed and described HERE.
  • The City of Watsonville has 4 formal advisory bodies, listed and described HERE.

In addition, there are 15 school boards throughout the county (listed HERE), 10 fire protection agencies (listed HERE), 7 water management agencies (listed HERE). That’s 115 official county and municipal advisory and decision-making bodies to keep track of and manage.

Despite this plethora of local bureaucracy, very little of it is focused on the protection and conservation of the natural world.

The County of Santa Cruz ostensibly has two departments associated with environmental protection:

  • The County Parks, Open Space & Cultural Services Department “advises the County Board of Supervisors and the Department of Parks, Open Space and Cultural Services on recreational programs, facilities, and parklands within the unincorporated area and outside the boundaries of the four special recreational districts of the County of Santa Cruz.” However, the current Director of the Department has unofficially changed the department name on its website to “Santa Cruz County Parks,” thus ignoring its County Code mandate to manage county designated open space.
    • Consequently, the County Parks and Recreation Commission no longer functions to advise the department and Board of Supervisors on the natural world within county designated open space properties. The commission is staffed by the County Parks, Open Space and Cultural Services Director who has restructured the commission to meet only four times a year, thus drastically limiting its ability to respond in a timely matter to Parks, Open Space and Cultural Services problems and concerns.
  • The Environmental Health Department is tasked with protecting human health, not the health and well-being of the natural world.

The County Commission on the Environment acts as an advisory body to, and resource for, the County Board of Supervisors. The Commission is charged with recommending policies and action programs designed to improve and protect the environment, however the commission acts almost exclusively on climate change impacts to humans. Staff support for the commission is by the County Planning Department.

The County Water Advisory Commission “advises the Board of Supervisors on all matters relating to water policy, to ensure that the production of water and the development of additional water supplies
are consistent with the growth management program and the General Plan of Santa Cruz County, and recommend to the Board of Supervisors any policies necessary to protect the watersheds, groundwater, fish and game, and recreational resources of Santa Cruz County.” The County Public Works Department provides staff support for the Commission.

The City of Santa Cruz has no department tasked with conservation and protection of the natural world.

  • The City Parks and Recreation Commission “advises the City Council on all matters concerning public recreation, including playgrounds, music, and entertainment” and is staffed by the City Parks and Recreation Department Director.

The City of Capitola has no department tasked with conservation and protection of the natural world. The City of Capitola Parks, a division of the Public Works Department, is responsible for maintenance of all City owned parks

  • The Capitola Commission on the Environment has an “interest in protection and enhancement of the City’s environment and assist the City Council in promoting sustainable development, greenhouse gas reduction measures, green building techniques, protection and enhancement of Soquel Creek, the ocean and Capitola Beach, and associated riparian and special habitat areas.”

The Scotts Valley Parks and Recreation Department provides a variety of public parks, recreation facilities and recreation programming for the community.

  • The Scotts Valley Parks and Recreation Commission is generally responsible for advising the City Council regarding policies for the acquisition, development, maintenance and improvement of park facilities, making recommendations as appropriate.

The City of Watsonville Environmental Division of the Public Works Department “was created to protect, enhance, and restore the City’s environmental resources in balance with our community’s needs while meeting all regulatory and statutory requirements by way of a comprehensive management of policies, grants, and community engagement efforts.”

The vast majority of county and municipal “environmental” activity is focused on climate change, Greenhouse gas emissions and climate adaptation. Environmental protection and restoration arises in response to development projects, especially those that require a CEQA Environmental Impact Report (EIR). Unfortunately, for the natural world, CEQA never prevents environmental impacts, it only regulates them. CEQA documents include a Findings of Facts and Statement of Overriding Considerations, which allow the lead agency for a project to present excuses for why the project should continue despite unavoidable and unmitigatable environmental impacts.

Since there is only a narrow single track pathway for environmental protection in county and municipal governments, local natural habitats and resources suffer impacts from government planned and funded growth and development policies and projects. County and city paid staff conceive of and plan development projects behind closed doors, revealing them to the public only when absolutely required, limiting the public to reacting to preordained project plans. Commissions and advisory bodies often meet semi-monthly or quarterly, making it impossible for the public to weigh in on proposed government activities in a timely manner.

Ironically, the County and municipalities have numerous ordinances, plans and policies for protection of the natural world, but no meaningful process for effective enforcement.

Coming up next on We live in the Natural World: Environmental plans and policies in county and municipal General Plans and Strategic Plans.

Meanwhile, you can keep track of local government activities and opportunities for public participation on Santa Cruz Online, my weekly compendium of county government and other organization meetings for the coming week.

How to Defend the Natural World

It’s another glorious day here on the Pacific Plate, golden light bathing the eucalyptus and oak trees overlooking the lagoon. An eagle pair has been hanging out in the trees lately, dive bombing the cormorants and coots; one eagle even took a crow yesterday.

It’s been a tough go for wildlife these days, what with a decreasing population of real environmeddlers in the roundabout hereof. Projects to build “environmentally friendly” bike and pedestrian rail trails are decimating local trees by the hundreds, in a long, linear swathe of arboreal mayhem. Multi-story people storage units (aka affordable housing) are popping up everywhere like mushrooms after a rain, their expanses of glittering glass inviting fatal avian collisions. Supposedly “emission-free” electric go-mobiles, one-wheeled, two-wheeled and four-wheeled, proliferate on the newly widened highways and ubiquitous, narrow bike lanes, sucking power from wind generator farms and solar panels slathered over the desert beyond yon horizon.

All of this environmental destruction is enabled, regulated and encouraged by a county Board of Supervisors, commissions, committees, non-profits and various municipal city councils, peopled by increasingly woke members lacking any essential knowledge and experience of the natural world.

The few remaining environmental activists in this bioregion are regularly steam-rollered under the overweening lumbering bureaucratic mega-machine fueled by inexperience, ignorance, apathy and greed. Ecological research, data, and facts are viewed as irrelevant in an atmosphere dominated by climate change hyperbole, self-serving inclusiveness and narrowly applied social justice.

The bureaucrats, government toadies and industry apologists have memorized their lines well and know their marks on the political stage. The system of city, county, state and federal legislation is well greased to facilitate development projects approval as quickly and efficiently as possible. Centuries old “Significant” and “Heritage” Trees are felled at the drop of a logger’s hard hat, houses destroyed in recent forest fires are being rebuilt in the same places despite continuing risks of fire and landslides.

Human domination of the Natural World continues apace, reducing natural habitats, diminishing biodiversity, encouraging erosion and sediment deposition into local streams, polluting the ground, water and air on which all life depends.

What do, what to do?

Resist much, obey little. Speak the truth at every opportunity. Be the change. Stand up for what we stand on. Pull back the curtain and pay attention to the humans at the controls of the Vast Machine who profit from the destruction of the Natural World.

At the end of the day, go to bed knowing you have done as much as you could on this day to save what little is left of the Natural World.

Living in Cooperation With the Natural World

The Natural World is a wet and windy place here on the Left Coast this time of year. Not climate change or global warming, just normal winter rain storms. Not disaster, just heavy rain and winds. Some trees down blocking roads and damaging a house here and there. Some homes are without electricity for a few hours. Inconvenient? Yes. Existential threat? No.

Normal weather.

You’d never know it from all the hyperbolic headlines, though.

“Atmospheric river storm to soak state”

“Powerful storm brings high winds, heavy rain to Santa Cruz County”

This persistent perception that we humans are separate from the Natural World, victims of natural disasters, striving for control of powerful forces that impact our daily lives, is an illusion, a particularly egregious illusion that damages us and all of the other than human world.

So-called “extreme weather events,” “atmospheric rivers,” “global warming” and “climate change” personify natural weather and climate variability and give the erroneous perception that weather and climate are separate from humans and can be controlled by humans.

This turns out not be the case.

The weather that we are experiencing this winter does not happen just to us, it happens with us.

Lurid headlines of extreme weather disasters are based on economic losses to humans, not on damage and loss to the natural world, which has evolved with weather and climate extremes. Problems with weather that humans experience are the result of human decisions about where we build our homes and businesses, how we move from home to work and elsewhere, how we condition our homes, cook our meals, dispose of wastes, how we think about the resources and wastes we use and produce.

To make matter worse, Our Fair County Officials are bending over backwards to allow residents to rebuild in the same places where their homes and property were destroyed by fire, floods and landslides. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent to increase the risk of forest fires, floods and landslides.

If we really want to live in sustainable human societies, we must relearn how to live in cooperation with natural cycles of weather and resource availability, not in resistance to very real and uncontrollable natural world cycles.

When I lived in Valdez, Alaska, just a snowball throw from the bank of the Lowe River flowing from glaciers in the mountains to the east, nearby residents were threatened by flooding from the glacier silt filled river. A hydrologist was hired to find out how to control the rapidly changing river channels. His answer was, “There’s nothing you can do. The water always wins.”

The best we can do is to modify our collective behavior to reduce the risk to ourselves and to our built infrastructure by choosing wisely where and how to live in cooperation with the Natural World.

Bioregional Democracy

It’s 2024, a New Year and a new political campaign season is under way as we organize to elect three County Supervisors, and four Santa Cruz City Council members.

As I’ve noted in previous posts (HERE and HERE), Santa Cruz County lends itself well to bioregional organization. Supervisorial Districts and Santa Cruz City Council Districts are already bioregionally defined, with borders largely determined by water courses and watersheds.

Click to enlarge

Oddly, though the districts are delineated bioregionally, they are designated by arbitrary numbers, rather than by meaningful descriptions. Comparing the Supervisorial Districts map with the Watersheds map, I would, if I had the power, rename the districts with names meaningful to those who live there, such as: 1) Live Oak/Soquel; 2) Aptos/San Andreas; 3) Santa Cruz/North Coast; 4) Pajaro; and 5) San Lorenzo.

In a similar way, I would rename the Santa Cruz City Council Districts by names reflective of their neighborhoods and the people who live there. For example: 1) Branciforte; 2) Seabright; 3) Bay/Westcliff; 4) Downtown; 5) Pogonip/UCSC; 6) Westside.

This would be a good start to help the people of Our Fair County understand local political organization, and appreciate the effects on the Natural World of decisions by local government representatives.

If you stop the average person on the streets of Santa Cruz City or County, unplug their ear buds, and ask them which voting district they live in, the majority would be unable to identify their district number or even the Supervisor or Council member who represents them. But ask them what neighborhood or community they live in, they will quickly and proudly identify with a particular area, such as Live Oak, Pleasure Point, Aptos, Westside, Eastside, Downtown, San Lorenzo Valley, North County, Mid County or South County.

The basis of bioregional democracy is this identification with the place, neighborhood or area that we inhabit, that we know, that we care about, where we have a stake in the outcome of local government plans and policies. Local political organization should reflect this normal human identification with place, as a means to engage the public in the process of local governance and to receive and embrace meaningful contributions from local residents based on their local experience. This would both help local government representatives to make decisions and craft laws and regulations that are meaningful to the public and appropriate to local social and environmental conditions. It would also increase the credibility of local government representatives in the eyes of local residents.

Over the years, as Santa Cruz has become more populated, urbanized and extensively developed, local government has become more centralized and authoritarian. County and City unelected staff have increased influence on government plans and policies, non-local contracted planners and advisors have replaced knowledgeable staff, and many commissions and advisory bodies have devolved into perfunctory social organizations rather than acting as meaningful public advisory bodies providing a desired service to the Board of Supervisors and city councils.

Democracy requires consistent, on-going public participation with the Board of Supervisors, city councils and county and city commissions, committees and advisory bodies. That means attending meetings of the Board of Supervisors, city councils, planning commissions and other advisory bodies whose purview includes those activities, places, natural habitats, wildlife and plant life that we hold dear and care for.

Bioregional democracy brings consideration for all life in the places we call home into the process of human governance. Let’s keep this in mind as we go through and beyond this election year.

Happy New Natural Year

At the turning of the year, it’s customary to look back at the year that was and forward to the year that is yet to be. Whether your year starts at the Winter Solstice or the next page on the calendar hanging on the wall, the New Year is a time of celebration, regrets and resolutions for new beginnings.

On this third day of the New Natural Year, I celebrate the biodiversity of the place that Jean and I call home and all the life that shares this bit of the Pacific Plate with us, sliding along the edge of North America on its way north to Alaska. The local climate is as close to Paradise as anyone could expect. The sun shines, most of the time, through west and south facing windows, warming my shoulder, face and lap as I pound away on this defenseless computer keyboard. Crows, gulls and red tailed hawks decorate the sky and fill the air with their exuberant calls. The dusky-footed wood rat trying to gnaw its way into the tool shed in the yard has given up and gone elsewhere in search of winter shelter.

On reflection, I regret that in the past year I haven’t written enough, talked to neighbors and friends enough, testified at public meetings enough, communicated my understanding of the natural world and the place of humans as one species among myriad others sharing this bit of the Earth.

Looking forward to the coming Natural Year, I rededicate myself to write and speak more for those neighbors, friends and fellow beings who have no voice in human affairs.

The cumbersome, complex and confounding world of political/economic governance in Our Fair County, and most of the rest of the human world, is dominated by the goals of population and economic growth, for humans and human institutions, that is. Other-than-human species have no say in this dominant social goal, and, at present, few humans speak up to defend the livelihoods of the four-legged, the winged, the flippered, the crawling and squirming, and the neighbors standing majestically in place, whose continuing health and well being is essential to the living biosphere of this bioregion and this planet we all live on and in.

Those of us who are aware, and those who will soon become aware, must make our understanding of the Natural Word known and understood in the halls of government, in public commissions, in places of worship and contemplation, on street corners, across neighborhood fences, texting, phone calls, emails, discussion groups, Zoom meetings, blogs and websites, by whatever means available to us.

This may seem like a conundrum, an oxymoron, an unconformity to use the technologies that are destroying the Natural World to call for their end in its defense. Perhaps so, though we must use the tools we have in hand to change the world to a new/old lifeway that no longer needs them.

I wish for you all and for all Life a Happy New Natural Year, in peace and harmony with all living beings in the Santa Cruz Bioregion we all call Home.

Public Funding of Environmental Non-Profits

I read a couple of articles recently, in Hilltromper Santa Cruz and the Santa Cruz Sentinel, featuring a November 2024 county ballot initiative titled the Safe Drinking Water, Clean Beaches, Wildfire Risk Reduction and Wildlife Protection Act, proposed by a group identified as “Santa Cruz County Residents for Clean Water, Fire Safety and Climate Resilience.” The contact person for the group is Eric Lombardo, Public Policy and Grants Manager for the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County. team@sccforwaterandwildfireprotection.org

This is how they describe their initiative on their website:

“The Water & Wildfire Protection Act (for short) is a ballot initiative sponsored by local environmental and community organizations to protect our natural and working lands by investing in Santa Cruz County’s lands and waters to build resilience to wildfires and other natural disasters in Santa Cruz County. It focuses on protecting our water quality, ocean, beaches, wildfire risk reduction, forest preservation, wildlife habitat enhancement, and the improvement of parks and natural areas. “Revenue would be generated by a modest $87 per parcel tax. By coming together as a community, we could raise approximately $7.5 million annually in locally-controlled funding.”

While the news articles are upbeat and positive, and the description of the intent of the project sounds like a Good Thing, something about it set off my BS detector. So I dipped further into the details on their website.

The goals listed for the Water & Wildfire Protection Act show little understanding of ecology and ecosystems function, and are focused on enhancing benefits to humans rather than preserving and restoring what’s left of the natural world and its non-human inhabitants. Let’s take a look look at some of the details of the proposed initiative.

“managing our natural and working lands … protecting our water quality, ocean, beaches, wildfire risk reduction,” all assume that the natural world belongs to humans and we should manage it to protect us and provide us with environmental services and recreation.

“preventing erosion in rivers to protect local water quality and drinking water supply now and for future generations.” I have no idea what “preventing erosion in rivers” means, nor how that would protect local water quality. Quality for whom? Ah! Future generations, of course. Note that there’s no mention of limiting human demands for water that outstrip the existing supply.

“thinning underbrush and creating firebreaks to protect our communities that are most at risk of damaging wildfire” proposes to reduce risk to human properties that have been inappropriately built in areas prone to forest fires. Thinning and firebreaks disrupt natural evolutionary processes and increase the intensity of fires by creating pathways for winds to spread and increase fire intensity. (Logging Creates “Unhealthy” Forests With Less Resilence)

The eight non-profits listed as “endorsements” for the initiative are well known local and neighbor environmental groups who have a record of conservation and preservation work in Santa Cruz County, with two exceptions:

Santa Cruz Mountain Trail Stewardship, is the rebranded “Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz,” (Why Some Mountain Bike Organizations are Rebranding), whose list of “Sponsors” include Ibis Bicycles, Pay Dirt (improve access to riding bicycles), Fox Trail Trust (delivering sustainable adventure to everyone), Specialized Bicycles, and Bell Helmets. They’ve ingratiated themselves to City and County Parks managers by building mountain bike trails and pump tracks throughout the county, increasing access to undeveloped lands by destructive and disruptive mountain biking individuals and groups.

Friends of County Parks is a non-profit fund raiser for County Parks and Recreation Department projects (“Our Mission is to preserve, protect, improve and promote the use of ​Santa Cruz County parks and open spaces for recreational activities, arts and cultural activities to benefit all generations in our diverse community.“) They are focused on developing local undeveloped areas as parks for human recreation and social activities, not for Safeguarding Water Quality, Cleaning Ocean and Beach Areas, Reducing Wildfire Risks or Enhancing Wildlife Habitats.

Here’s what’s bugging me about this initiative:

Increasing public property taxation to fund private non-profit organizations and their paid executive directors and staff costs more than in house planning, and allows projects to be planned and implemented behind closed doors, out of public review and participation. Outsourcing results in environmental projects such as the North Coast Facilities Management Plan (What? You’ve not heard of this?), allegedly overseen by the County Parks and Recreation Department (nudge, nudge, wink, wink), but meeting and planning for the past 18 months with no public notice or involvement.

It’s true that the natural world in our local bioregion is suffering from the negative effects of human growth and development. And it’s also true that local county and municipal governments have not prioritized funding for protection, preservation and restoration of natural habitats. But funding this necessary work through a privately funded ballot initiative denies local participation in the process of setting government priorities and overseeing fiscal and technical planning and implementation.

Environmental News November 27 – December 2

Coastal Rail Trail

Segment 7b change orders

Santa Cruz City Council, Tuesday, November 28, Consent Agenda item 17.

Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail (Rail Trail) Segment 7 Phase 2 – Budget Adjustment, Construction Management Services Contract Amendment No. 1, and Design and Construction Support Services Contract Amendment No. 8.

“Due to the extreme winter events of 2022/2023 and extra work needed to address conflicts with the proposed trail, the project has experienced over 6 months of delays and $2.95 million dollars of extra cost. The additional work has included: relocating conflicting utilities, installing a new utility crossings for the Wastewater Treatment Facility, archaeological monitoring, redesigning a section of retaining wall, cleaning debris and additional stormwater management caused by the winter storms, fixing eroded structural excavation sections, and replacing unsuitable material along the proposed trail. Due to the project’s delays and additional scope, WSP construction management services must be extended to the new estimated completion date of March of 2024. Staff recommends approval of contract amendment number 1 for WSP to complete the project.”

  • 1) Approve a resolution amending the FY 2024 budget to appropriate funds in the amount of $2,950,000 from Wastewater enterprise and Measure D portions of Rail Trail Segment 8 & 9 to Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail (Rail Trail) Segment 7 Phase 2 Project.

Segments 10 & 11 Draft Environmental Impact Report

The County of Santa Cruz, as Lead Agency, in coordination with the City of Capitola, and the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission, has completed a 1,474 page Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Coastal Rail Trail Segments 10 and 11 Project. 

Project Description: The Project is an approximately 4.5-mile new multi-use bicycle and pedestrian trail proposed to extend along the Santa Cruz Branch Line rail corridor from the eastern side of 17th Avenue at the western limits of the Project to the western side of State Park Drive at the eastern limits of the Project, excluding a 0.5-mile section following surface streets through the incorporated City of Capitola from Opal Street/Cliff Drive Plaza to Monterey Avenue/Park Avenue. The DEIR evaluates the Ultimate Trail Configuration (Trail Next to Rail), as well as an Optional Interim Trail (Trail on the Rail Line) whereby the railroad tracks would be removed and the trail would be located on the rail bed, at an equal level of detail.

The Draft EIR provides an evaluation of the potential environmental impacts of the proposed project and recommends mitigation measures to reduce impacts to a less-than-significant level where possible.  Anticipated significant and unavoidable impacts (not mitigable to a level below significance) include effects to aesthetics, monarch butterfly habitat, wildlife movement, and greenhouse gas emissions (inconsistency with GHG reduction plans) resulting from tree removal. Additional environmental effects anticipated include impacts to sensitive habitat and wildlife; hazardous materials (due to the presence of contaminated soils); noise and vibration (impacts to sensitive receptors from project construction); and cultural, tribal, and paleontological resources (including potential impacts to unknown resources from ground disturbance).

Anticipated cumulative impact of tree removal for the Ultimate Trail, Segments 9 through 12:

  • Segment 9 – 381 Trees
  • Segments 10 & 11 – 803 Trees
  • Segment 12 (Rail Trail) – 527 Trees
  • Segment 12 (Hiway 1) – 1112 Trees
    • Total – 1,833 Trees

Comments on the Segments 10 & 11 Draft Environmental Impact Report are due by close of business (5:00 pm) Friday, December 15.

Click HERE for more information and instructions for submitting comments on the DEIR.

North Coast Facilities and Management Plan

The County Parks and Recreation Department will host the North Coast Facilities and Management Plan Public Meeting Thursday, November 30 from 5:30 to 7:00 pm in a hybrid meeting at the Pacific Elementary School Multipurpose Room, 50 Ocean Street in Davenport. Click HERE for information and instructions for public participation.

Public input sought on draft of North Coast projects

By PK Hattis | pkhattis@santacruzsentinel.com | Santa Cruz Sentinel

https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/…/public-input…/

Local officials have invited the public to provide input on public access and natural resource protection priorities along the North Coast of Santa Cruz County.

With Santa Cruz County Parks at the helm, a group of state and local agencies are working to identify priority coastal projects ranging from Santa Cruz city limits to the San Mateo County line. The effort, funded by a pair of $100,000 grants from the California Coastal Conservancy and California State Parks, has resulted in a draft list of dozens of priority projects based on previous community and stakeholder engagement.

Once finalized, the projects will be included in the North Coast Facilities Management Plan aiming to enhance the experience of visitors coming to witness the iconic coastline while managing visitor impacts and preserving natural resources.

Rural Bonny Doon Association (RBDA) Public Meeting

The Rural Bonny Doon Association has been asked by County Supervisor Justin Cummings to organize a public meeting on two topics:

  1. Feedback on the North Coast Facilities and Management Plan
  2. Dave Reid, head of the County Office of Response, Recovery, and Resilience will present on Winter Safety and Preparation.

Murray Street Bridge Seismic Retrofit

Santa Cruz City Council, Tuesday, November 28, Consent Agenda item 18:

Murray Street Bridge Seismic Retrofit – Contract Amendment 11

At its February 9, 2000 meeting, the City Council authorized staff to enter into an agreement with Imbsen and Associates to provide design completion services for the Market Street Bridge, the Water Street Bridge and East Cliff Bridge. Amendments 1 through 7 to this contract authorized Imbsen and Associates (and then the same entity renamed TRC Engineers, Inc.) to provide preliminary engineering design and environmental documentation services and then coordinate right of way services for the Murray Street Bridge.

The cost included within Amendment 11 for (the final design, bidding, and construction phase support) for this project is $849,828.00. Over 90% of the project costs incurred to date, and future costs will be reimbursed by federal and state grants. The City cost share is from local gas tax funds.

Santa Cruz Wharf

Don’t Morph the Municipal Wharf

[At its January 9 meeting], the Santa Cruz City Council will decide the future of the historic Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf. The Wharf was designed and built in 1914 by Master Engineer Henry J. Brunnier, who also built iconic buildings and bridges in San Francisco, post 1906 earthquake.

You may recall that in 2020 a Wharf Master Plan and its environmental review were circulated for public comment. The plan proved widely unpopular with the public. The many changes proposed for the Wharf included three 40-feet tall buildings for public and private gatherings. The current tallest structures on the Wharf are 24 feet, with many at 12 feet, giving the Wharf a low profile atop its 4,450 pilings.

Other changes included a new large boat dock to accommodate 200-ton vessels, a 30% increase in commercial space, and a walkway 8 feet below deck on the west side (Steamer Lane side) bringing people behind the current shops and restaurants for approximately a third of the Wharf’s length. The city claimed the walkway wouldn’t block the view from the restaurants but anyone who has eaten at a Wharf restaurant knows that looking down on scores of people walking by on a 12-foot-wide stainless steel and fiberglass walkway is not the same as looking at an uninterrupted view of ocean, marine life, and migratory birds.

The 2020 environmental impact report (EIR) was inadequate on many levels. It postponed decisions about where the popular sea lion viewing holes would be relocated after the public pointed out that one of the tall buildings would cover them. It rejected its own Alternative 2, the environmentally superior alternative that met all project objectives. Alternative 2 gets rid of the lowered westside walkway.

Over 2,000 people signed a petition expressing opposition to the plan and over 400 wrote personal statements urging the city to not “morph the Wharf.” Those who wrote expressed their love for the current Wharf and begged the council to not transform it into a version of Pier 39.

The vote at the council was close, however, the Wharf Master Plan and EIR were adopted. In response, a group of locals under the name “Don’t Morph the Wharf!” raised the funds to challenge the city in court … and won. In 2022, the court ruled that the city must rescind the Wharf Master Plan and EIR.

Since then, the city’s consulting attorneys and environmental experts have produced a revised plan and EIR. Both are essentially the same as the 2020 versions. None of the features so disliked by the public have been changed or removed. The court ordered the city to provide compelling evidence why Alternative 2, which removes the westside walkway, was not adopted. The city has failed to do that.

The 2023 Wharf Master Plan and EIR have been reviewed by three commissions. The Historic Preservation Commission, arguably the most important given the historic nature of the Wharf, recommended removal of the westside walkway which “degrades the visual character of the Wharf and is incompatible with its historic design.”

The city is pushing the impression that the walkway is necessary to preserve the structural integrity of the Wharf. Brunnier, [Designer of the Wharf…lee] however, designed the pilings at a height of 23 feet to allow even big waves to flow under the Wharf. Putting obstacles in the way does nothing for safety or structural integrity. The court ruling noted that alternatives for lateral stability are available. The consulting engineering report concluded “the Wharf structure is in good condition overall” with less than 5% of pilings needing replacement, and many have already been replaced. The road and substrate were cited as in poor condition. Nothing prevents the city from fixing them.

The Sierra Club, the Santa Cruz Bird Club and Don’t Morph the Wharf! all strongly support dropping the westside walkway from the Wharf plan.

It is vital you let City Council know your thoughts by [the January 9 meeting]. citycouncil@santacruzca.gov

Gillian Greensite is a long-time resident of the city of Santa Cruz and a member of Don’t Morph the Wharf!

San Lorenzo Park Redesign Project

Santa Cruz City Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting on December 11, 2023 at 4:00 p.m. at City Council Chambers, 809 Center Street in Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz City Parks and Recreation Department staff and the consulting team will present a preferred layout and use option for the redesign of San Lorenzo Park which is based on feedback received through the public process and has been refined through a recent community meeting and an online survey. Staff will be requesting direction and a recommendation from the Commission to Council to accept the layout and uses and direct staff to advance to the to the next stage of the process which involves preparing the draft plan.

The Agenda Report and meeting information will be posted HERE on December 8, 2023. Click HERE for information and updates.

Following Santa Cruz County Governments

Santa Cruz County is the smallest county in California, with a population of some 270,000 residents living in a bioregion of 670 square miles, 162 square miles of which is water.

To follow local government and other organization meetings throughout Santa Cruz County, join me on:

Santa Cruz Online

A Quantum Experiment

You may or may not have heard of the Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment, involving a cat in a box that may be either dead or alive when the box is opened. It’s quantum physics, a way of explaining the Universe without using complex mathematics, much to my relief.

I’m conducting a similar quantum experiment here with We Live in the Natural World, which now exists both on WordPress and Substack.

My task now is to decide which version of We Live in the Natural World is alive and which is dead, and I’m asking you help me resolve this paradox.

The last post you received, Bioregional Governance, was via Substack. This second post is coming to you via WordPress.

Which works best for you on the electronic device you use to read these posts? Do you prefer reading emails from WordPress, emails from Substack, or viewing posts on the WordPress Reader? Which website do you prefer to view the archives and learn more about the author, WordPress or Substack.

I appreciate you taking a moment to post a short comment on this post with your preferences.

Oh, and don’t worry about the cat. Cats have nine lives and they don’t care a wet fig about quantum physics.

Michael

Bioregional Organization

I wrote this piece in 2005 for what once was a discussion list called Hayduke Speaks. Edited lightly, it’s amazing how much it is still relevant 18 years later.

No human social system can long continue that exploits other species and destroys critical habitat without regard for the needs of non-human species. Access to land, natural resources and “labor” necessary for all species survival cannot favor one species over all others. Humans cannot destroy the natural habitat necessary for other species without destroying our own ability to survive. Humans do not live in a biological vacuum. The success of Homo sapiens depends on the success of all other species.

If humans are to take their place as co-inhabitants of this earth, rather than rulers over all, we must extend the idea of the commons to embrace all species. A sustainable society, then, would be a society embracing all life, with no one species having preferential access to the necessities of life over any other species.

A sustainable society cannot be conducted at the global level of organization. It is meaningless for a local society in Botswana to live in keeping with the biological and geophysical limits of the salmon of the Northwest Coast of North America. It is impossible for the people of New York City to know and live with the biological interrelationships among species of the coastal plain of Chukotka.

This biological society, this all species economic system, would be regional, living within the biological and geophysical limitations of specific regions. Another term for this is bioregionalism.

No national, international or global political or governmental system, that is no centralized, authoritarian, coercive political system, can deal with the variability in requirements for living in place. Any hierarchical system creates inequality and division which destroys stability. Hierarchy and central authority are antithetical to a stable, diverse and living ecosystem. As cheap and easily centralized energy sources decline, future social systems will develop in decentralized, antiauthoritarian, non-hierarchical fashion, as the decline of centralized government is precipitated by Peak Oil and climate variability.

The Roman Empire found it increasingly difficult to supply and manage far-flung outposts, such as what became Great Britain, especially Siluria or Wales. Centralized authority quickly gave way to local decentralized rule, resulting in the Roman withdrawal from the island. When the Romans pulled back their military, local social systems quickly readjusted to local decision-making and local economies. No chaos ensued. Order was maintained through decentralized structures in the absence of centralized, authoritarian rule.

We can expect that central authority will, over time, lose control of the periphery, first in client states, then within its own boundaries. Eventually, as energy continues to decline, and central authorities can no longer organize national rule, bioregional organizations will continue to pick up the slack left by the decline of central organization.

Bioregionalism mimics natural relationships among members of all species. Interrelationships among all life on this planet are organized through stable ecosystems in dynamic equilibrium within the range of biological diversity. Stable, diverse species in dynamic equilibrium. Stable, diverse societies in dynamic equilibrium. Constant change, in balance.

How do we get there from here?

“Let our actions form our doctrine, thus ensuring precise theoretical coherence.”

Doc Sarvis in The Money Wrench Gang, by Edward Abbey

The Government, whatever and wherever that is, is not going to bail us out of this one. They’ve opened the sea cocks and taken all the life boats, leaving us to cling to the fantail as we sink gloriously beneath the waves. It’s think or thwim from here on out.

Since we’re left to our own devices, we may as well work our own way out of this mess. Centralization and industrialism are the core problems, so decentralization and local, small-scale production are the answers.

We start at home. Choose a place to live that requires the smallest heating and cooling. Choose or modify our homes for maximum solar gain in the winter, minimum solar gain in the summer, well insulated with good non-metallic double pane windows. Grow as much food as possible around and in our homes.

Choose our work places close to home so we can walk or bicycle to and from work, including at noon so we can enjoy a good nutritious vegetarian meal with our loved ones, and a glass of good wine. Choose our homes within walking or bicycling distance to markets, library, schools and live music and entertainment.

Eschew television and other propaganda devices. Listen to local, independent radio, read progressive journalists, cruise the internet for alternative sources of news and information. Don’t believe anything we hear and only half what we see.

Participate in neighborhood associations, home owners associations, volunteer fire departments, neighborhood road associations. Attend local civic councils and assemblies and testify regularly in defense of neighborhood and community values. Run for local office. Work for local candidates for local office who support community values, democracy, local self-reliance and mutual aid.

Grow some food at home, no matter how little, to keep in touch with the life in the soil. Buy what food we cannot grow at local farmers markets. Participate in food co-ops and community supported farming programs. Buy local until it squeaks. Do not darken the doorsteps of big box stores, food chains, fast food emporiums or malls for any reason whatsoever.

Get rid of all but one small fuel efficient vehicle and drive it only once a week for 10 miles or less. Make use of the wonders of electronic media to confer with colleagues, share pictures with family and friends, visit exotic foreign lands. Get rid of every gadget around the house and neighborhood that has a gas motor attached to it. Yes, that includes the leaf blower. Especially the damned leaf blower!

Get to know our neighbors, work with them on neighborhood and community projects. Block off the street and throw a block party. Organize a child care co-op for families where both parents work.

Learn real practical skills: plumbing, electricity, home repair, car repair, appliance repair. Soon we won’t be able to buy a new toy when the old one breaks; we’ll have to fix things instead of pitching them in the “trash.” Work on a farm, apprentice to a car mechanic, build a house, install a toilet. It’s fun, it’s cheap and it’s empowering!

Change our work from full-time to part time. Reduce our income drastically; that way we won’t have to give so much money to the war machine. Sell our oversized houses and move into a rental home half its size. Hold a garage sale and get rid of all that stuff in the garage where our car is supposed to park. Strive to never buy anything new except toothpaste and underwear. Everything we really need can be found used and in great condition at the flea market, yard sales, free tables or thrift shops. We’ll know we’re on the right track when we don’t spend any money for three to four days at a stretch. Soon we won’t know what to do with all the money that piles up around the place. Chuck it away, invest it in a home place that produces energy and food.

When we lower our standard of living, we increase the quality of our lives. We don’t own Things, they own us.

The process has begun. Bioregional organizations are building throughout the world, organizing people in systems of mutual aid, community organization and self-reliance, building tools for the people to take care of ourselves as we turn away from centralized governmental authoritarian rule.

Michael Lewis, Live Oak, Pacific Plate